Black and white

[tojo102]

Well, the comic has certainly gotten interesting now. However, I may be missing something, but does anyone have any ideas as to which side we should be seeing as the heroes here?

[Kalessin]

Both, yet none of the two.:smallbiggrin:

Actually, the Ansom part.

[Stormzen]

Parson Gotti is an anagram for "protagonist".

[Sage in the Playground]

I don't think its black-and-white. Its grey-and-gray.

[Silverlocke980]

I believe it to be "black-and-white"- Stanley's evil, I think, though his "I'm a Tool of the Titans!" bit shakes my faith on that a little.

Still, seeing this as gray v. gray could be kind of interesting...

[Thanatos]

I believe it to be "black-and-white"- Stanley's evil, I think, though his "I'm a Tool of the Titans!" bit shakes my faith on that a little.

Still, seeing this as gray v. gray could be kind of interesting...
No, Sage said "grey-and-gray", the Brit and Yank spellings of the word, respectively. I'm American, but I always use "grey" because I just prefer that spelling, though I don't use "colour", "armour", and such. To me, "grey" feels darker, maybe somewhat bluish, while "gray" seems lighter and a bit yellowish.

As far as the sides go, Stanley's side is technically the "bad" one, but it's also the protagonist's side. I have no problem with anti-heroes (though I dislike outright villains), and that's about how Parson's position looks to me, at this point.

[Erk]

There is already a big discussion on this, "is gobwin knob evil". To repeat, we really don't know how evil gobwin knob/stanley are. They are clearly not good guys, but that doesn't make them bad guys. We don't even know if they are the aggressors in this war... we don't know if croakamancy is at all evil, we don't know if interrogation is evil the way they do it, we don't really know anything besides the fact that they like sinister decorations and Stanley is selfish.

On the other hand, all we know about Ansom regarding his goodness/badness is that he has allies. Seriously, that is all we know. That does not make him a good guy... nor does the way his troops look. If I had an army and painted all my tanks pink, would that make me the Good Guy when I led a massive charge into my neighbouring countries, intent on flattening them and divvying up their resources?

Thanatos: Dead Like Me is the best thing that ever happened on television. I can't count the number of times I have watched that show all the way through :elan:

[Voodzik]

I think Stanley is pretty obviously evil....that said, I think Wanda might be less evil than she seems.

[Vonriel]

How so? All we really know about him is that he wanted the other arkentools. We don't know whether or not he had his generals do things in the sinister approach (Rape the women! Burn the village! Pillage the valuables! .. Not necessarily in that order, though.) or the half-decent thing (Ok, we've won here, let them go) - except that we can be pretty sure he didn't win. Stupid? Most definitely. Evil? Still up in the air, I say.

[Luvlein]

Come on, nearly every sentence that leaves Stanley's mouth oozes evilness.

[Logos7]

Those who Torture and squander their leadership corps, keep chained lookamancers , thinks of the reinforcements when his troops die, raise fallen commanders and has to do so enough that the first one's thus raised are long dusty before Lord Manpower's gonna dust?

Oh Yeah and Keep a City of the Undead while on a quest for artifacts of power to further extend his domination.

also Keeps Crapamancers and Consorts and Has Henchmen.

No matter how inept Stanley is , He's Evil and as he's the boss Gobwin's knob is evil two.

It's not Grey vs gray it's gonna be Fun and exciting vs Boring and safe. My Money's on Fun and Exciting

And note i've said nothing about wanda or parson, I'm sure Ansom's a great guy ... if you can get past the fact he seems to come off as a great big usufferable prick.

Maybe Unsufferable Tool vs Unsufferable Prick is a better description

But that's just my 2 SCHMUCKERA!

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

In terms of the traditional wargame fantasy archetypes...

Plaid Tribe: Dwagons, gobwins, undead, giant crawlies.
Alliance: Gwiffons, elves, animals, giant stuffed animals.

Looks like Stanley is evil and Ansom isn't. However, We've seen a pretty good job so far of keeping it balanced and gray.

[MolotovH]

To me, "grey" feels darker, maybe somewhat bluish, while "gray" seems lighter and a bit yellowish.

That's so very... Adamsian. In fact, I can hear those words coming directly from Ford Prefect's mouth, most likely while he's busy putting on his Danger-Sensitive Sunglasses and dodging incoming thermonuclear missiles.

[factotum]

Plaid Tribe: Dwagons, gobwins, undead, giant crawlies.
Alliance: Gwiffons, elves, animals, giant stuffed animals.


Pretty sure we've never actually seen a gobwin in Stanley's forces, even though his capital is named after them. Furthermore, you forgot that Ansom appears to have a squad of doombats being led by a vampire among his forces, which is hardly a usual component of a good army...

[EDIT] Oh, and it was Zaphod Beeblebrox who used the Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, not Ford Prefect. :-)

[Mutiemoe]

Pretty sure we've never actually seen a gobwin in Stanley's forces, even though his capital is named after them. Furthermore, you forgot that Ansom appears to have a squad of doombats being led by a vampire among his forces, which is hardly a usual component of a good army...



I think those unusual critters in the otherwise good guy army come from turnbased computer strategy games where you could end up with all sorts of traditionally bad guy troops in your good guy army.

[Krellen]

Ansom's forces have seven* different types of elves. They're obviously the evil ones!

*The Superfluous Elves don't count. They're Superfluous.

[chionophile]

Pretty sure we've never actually seen a gobwin in Stanley's forces, even though his capital is named after them. Furthermore, you forgot that Ansom appears to have a squad of doombats being led by a vampire among his forces, which is hardly a usual component of a good army...

[EDIT] Oh, and it was Zaphod Beeblebrox who used the Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, not Ford Prefect. :-)

Gobwins (and hobgobwins): http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0021.html

If Ansom is planning around them, that's good enough for me. Plus, Vinnie strikes me as a decent guy.

[factotum]

If Ansom is planning around them, that's good enough for me. Plus, Vinnie strikes me as a decent guy.

They always do, right up to the moment they sink their fangs in. :smallwink:

[Cobra_Ikari]

Gobwins (and hobgobwins): http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0021.html

If Ansom is planning around them, that's good enough for me. Plus, Vinnie strikes me as a decent guy.

Better views of a gobwin can be found on page 2, while page 28's Mung is most likely a hobgobwin.

[MolotovH]

[EDIT] Oh, and it was Zaphod Beeblebrox who used the Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, not Ford Prefect. :-)

Ah, it's been a while since I've read the book. I lent my Ultimate Bound Edition to someone and they never returned it. On an unrelated note, I don't talk to her anymore. Very sad...

All in all, though, I really think that there is an element of noir to Erfworld, in that everyone is the "bad guys" and it's a matter of cheering for the protagonist rather than the "good guys."

[belboz]

Here's how I see it. Note that this is a nearly totally uninformed opinion, based on the small number of strips so far, plus some tropes that they seem to be hitting.

The Plaids: Evil, and Stanley himself is, of course, a dimbulb. But his side (other than he himself) has all the wit, all the clarity of thought, and all the fun.

Ansom: Noble, honorable, and true. But still kind of a git.

[battleburn]

Ansom's side may be good and Stanley's side evil, but in this story I think Stanley's side are the good guys.
They are losing the battle because of a single extra gem.
Besides thinking of what kind of character Parson is. If he played WoW (which he doesn't because of too little strategy) he would be on the Orc side, not the human side.
Ansom has got elves, ergo, they got to die. Simple as that.

-battleburn

[Hazkali]

No, Sage said "grey-and-gray", the Brit and Yank spellings of the word, respectively. I'm American, but I always use "grey" because I just prefer that spelling, though I don't use "colour", "armour", and such. To me, "grey" feels darker, maybe somewhat bluish, while "gray" seems lighter and a bit yellowish.


That's odd- I'm a Brit and I have exactly the opposite feeling- to me "grey" has light and warm connotations, while "gray" is slate/steel grey.

Anyhow, as I see it it must be Grey v Gray, as both sides are using similar creatures, and neither side seems particularly concerned with "good" or "evil".

[dragongirl13]

I don't know who is Good and who is Evil. Maybe they're all Neutral and they're just enemies because they're both questing for the Arkentools. They might both be Good but both have a misunderstanding. They may both be Evil. The thing is, Undead (Uncroaked?) are always evil, and therefore Gobwin Knob has to be evil or neutral. Then again, Vinnie (the guy with all the Doombats) is a vampire or something, and they're always evil too. In short, I don't know.

[Darth Paradox]

The thing is, Undead (Uncroaked?) are always evil, and therefore Gobwin Knob has to be evil or neutral. Then again, Vinnie (the guy with all the Doombats) is a vampire or something, and they're always evil too. In short, I don't know.

Who says we're playing by D&D rules? There's no universal law across all of fantasy that states undead == evil. There's a trend, and maybe even a strong correlation, but certainly no direct, exclusive relationship.